'He wants to make himself unsackable': Manjrekar on Kohli's shocking decision to resign as Test captain

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrkear shared his two cents on Virat Kohli's shocking announcement to leave India's Test captaincy. Kohli on Saturday (January 15) took to social media to confirm that his time as the captain of the Indian Test team was over and that he is not looking to continue in the role going forward. Kohli's decision came after India's 2-1 loss in the recently-concluded three-match Test series against South Africa.

Wishes and congratulatory messages have been pouring in from all corners for Kohli, who is signing off as India's most successful Test captain of all time. Kohli is also one of the best Test captains overall and has an impeccable captaincy record in the longest format with 40 wins and 17 draws in 68 Test matches as a captain.

This is not the first time Kohli has left acaptaincy position as he had last year stepped down as India's T20I captain and announced that he will not be leading the side post the T20 World Cup 2021. He had also relinquished the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

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Sharing his views on the sudden unexpected announcement from Kohli which has shaken up the cricketing world, Manjrekar said Kohli's decision to leave captaincy posts of the national team and his IPL team one after another suggests that he wants to be unsackable as skipper. Manjrekar feels Kohli knew his captaincy could have been under threat and decided to walk away.

“It’s come one after the other in a very short span of time - giving up the white-ball captaincy and IPL captaincy as well. This also was unexpected, but it is interesting that all these three resignations of important positions have come so quickly one after the other,” Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo.

“I think, in some way, he wants to make himself unsackable as captain. When he gets that vibe that his captaincy is under threat, he tends to quit,” added the former India batsman, who never shies away from expressing his views on cricketing matters.

Also Read:Virat Kohli was 'tired', was his decision alone to leave Test captaincy; Rohit likely to take over - Report

Kohli was appointed as India's full-time Test captain in the year 2014 when he took over from the legendary MS Dhoni. Kohli instilled a belief in the team and inststantly took them to the top of the ICC rankings making India a force to reckon with in the purest format of the game.

India dominated teams at home and away from home under his leadership and registered Test series wins in Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka among others besides leading 2-1 in the postponed Test series against England in their own backyard last year.